New Year's Day will have Bill de Blasio sworn in as the new mayor of New York City. And he will be sworn into the office by former President Bill Clinton.
An impeached president will be administering the oath of office to the New York mayor, and this piece of information has suddenly brought in an increased interest in the ceremony.
Democrat Blasio will be the 109th mayor of the largest US city. De Blasio shares close ties with the former president, as he has worked in the Clinton administration in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
De Blasio also managed Hillary's 2000 Senate campaign. For the swearing-in ceremony that is set to be held at the City Hall Steps, Clinton will use a Bible that belonged to Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States.
In another country and in another place, an impeached president would never have been granted such a respect. But it is a sure sign that the country is progressing and, more than that, it means the democrats, stand strong.
The impeachment episode of former President Clinton is a reminder that American citizens have reached a level of political sophisticiation, wherein, they can see their leaders as 'men with flaws' and are still ready to forgive.
In 1999, it was only the second time in the US history that the Senate conducted an impeachment trial and Clinton subsequently was acquitted.
But the Clinton trial broughtforth the realisation that a president's impeachment may not be a national calamity. A nation need not depend on the superior virtue of one man alone. It's been over a decade since the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal but it also is a testimony of time that the US had matured, and is more interested in the work of its politicians, than what they do in bed.
When Blasio takes over the office, he will be New York's first democrat mayor in the last 20 years. Standing tall at 6ft 5in, his immediate concern would be establishing a stronger democrat base in this city of Wall Street. And he would benefit from taking the lessons on politics from Clinton, who has shown a flair in counteracting the Republicans, besides his panache for handling crisis that saw his approval ratings skyrocketed despite the impeachment trial.
